Christensen, Balestri & Bertin complete WC grid

We have our grid for the one hour Main Final that will get underway in just under an hours time and determine who the new 2008 World Champion will be. The Semi A was the last run before the big race and a superb drive by Martin Christensen saw the Danish driver lead home a class act with double European Champion Dario Balestri, from whom he took the race lead during the final pit stop, taking second and double World Champion Adrien Bertin taking the last of the bump up placings.

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Leino, Strom & Lemieux into Final

Teemu Leino, Roland Strom and Paul Lemieux have secured their places in the 2008 Worlds Final after taking the top 3 places in the Semi Final B combined results. The race had to be run over two parts after a rain shower interrupted to orginal run 17 minutes in. Lemieux had a comfortable lead over Leino in the first part of the final when the weather caused the race director to stop the race.

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Rain delays Finals at WC

The Semi B Final has been stopped due to rain. Young American star Paul Lemieux was holding a comfortable lead from fellow electric touring car ace Teemu Leino with 13 minutes to go when a shower caused the race to be stopped. The remaining part of the race will be run after a short delay with the two parts added together to decide the result. Due to the weather interruption it will now be the Top 3 from each Semi that progress to the Main Final.

Update (15:56 GMT): Racing is to resume in just under 5 minutes with the second part of the Semi Final B which is to run over 13 minutes. Drivers will line up in the order in which they finished Part 1 of the race so Paul Lemieux is on pole from Teemu Leino.

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World Champion Fukuda out

Defending World Champion Keisuke Fukuda will take no further part in the 2008 World Championship after finishing outside the top 3 in the 1/4 Final B. With the Japanese driver not progressing to the next final it means, weather permitting, that this evening we will have a new World Champion. The 1/4 Final B was dominated by electric touring ace Teemu Leino who lead from start to finish under the guideance of double World Champion Adrien Bertin and his super fast pitman. Behind the Finn it was another Scandanavian who drove a faultless race as Sweden’s Roland Storm took second.

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Defending Champion through to final day

He’s the current World Champion and he’s been enduring a tough time in Portugal so far qualifying only 34th but Keisuke Fukuda has kept his title defence hopes alive by winning the 1/8 Final B which will see him progress to the final day of the 2008 competition. The Japanese ace looked as though his woes were to continue today as his car stalled during the count down to the start, the drama putting him last at the end of the opening lap.

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Overnight exhaust controversy at Worlds

Following an official protest by Novarossi during the final round of qualifying yesterday, Sirio drivers, who make up 3 of the top 4 drivers will no longer be allowed to use the latest version of the Sirio #2611 exhaust pipe. Novarossi’s protest was originally not accepted however at what we understand was a very heated 1:10 Section meeting last night at the official hotel for the event, IFMAR made the descision to issue the following statement late last night which means that the new version of the #2611 pipe, as used by Jilles Groskamp to TQ, may no longer be used.

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Groskamp TQ’s World Championships

Jilles Groskamp has secured the TQ for the 2008 IFMAR 1:10 200mm World Championship to claim his first ever placing in a nitro World Final in style. The last of the six heats here in Lisbon produced a thrilling climax to the three days of qualifying with most of the title hopefuls running a TQ pace. After 10-minutes however it was Chris Tosolini who stopped the clocks in the fastest time just 9/1000th off Groskamp’s TQ time which was set in the earlier of the day’s two heats.

Check out the full coverage on our event site here.